thank you so much, michael. peter, you're sticking around. >>> meantime, the fiscal cliff may be a big deal but there is another threat out there which might be in the short term more risky. the container cliff. businesses up and down the eastern seaboard are bracing for a massive port showdown as unions threaten to strike and possibly shut down most imports and exports out of this country. let's add in cnbc contributor jimmy peeb. we focus so much on the fiscal cliff. if we shut down 14 or 15 of the biggest ports in america, that could do much more harm than any fiscal escarpment. >> it could do much more harm more quickly. the fiscal cliff on january 1st, the economy's not going to collapse. but the shutdown of these ports, you had $200 billion or $300 billion a year coming into this country through these ports. what i think interesting, the last time we saw an east coast longshoreman strike, port shutdown, was in 1977. a decade which i remember where nothing went right. nothing worked. right now, to me, not m